Posts Tagged ‘Armageddon’

As a teen, in the good ‘ole days of Candidates Matches and World Championship battles that actually had enough games to reduce the luck factor, I used to have the draw posted on my door, so I could follow along and see the future pairings, etc..

These were also the days when there wasn’t live internet coverage. I remember buying the official match newsletter for one of the Kasparov-Karpov matches. I think it was 1990. It arrived in the mail a day or two after each game with some good analysis. It was always so exciting to come home from school to one of these two to three page write-us. I’d immediately sit down on the couch and play it out on the coffee table.

To relive that experience, though at a much accelerated pace, I’ve filled in the gaps on FIDE’s wallchart HERE, which I’ll be keeping up to date as each match completes. You can see some of the big names are already through to the next round based on no-shows.

Yesterday, Round 1 tiebreaks saw Kadimova taking Paehtz to an Armageddon game before the latter pulled it out. Surely not the start she must’ve expected. The other tiebreak victors were Katerine Rohonyan (missed mentioning she’s another American in the competition) who defeated Zhukova, Socko over Foisor in an Armageddon, Moser against Mkrtchian (6 letters before we see a vowel), and Ju over Bojkovic.

And yet, just this May, the chess-playing public watched on in horror as the US Women’s Chess Championship was decided by a blitz playoff, capped by an Armageddon game. Worst of all, with digital clocks now the standard in tournament play, there was no time-delay used for these games.

How is it right to take a cerebral art and turn it into a show of manual dexterity? Same goes for when the ICC conducts important qualifying tournaments, like the Challenge of State Champions, in which I once competed, at a rate of 3 minutes per side, with—you guessed it—no delay.

Irina’s explosive rook launch upon being flagged in this most critical of games is understandable: Video on ChessBase.

Reminds me of the time my freshman roommate at UNH chucked his King against the cement wall after losing a game to me. Why was that particular game so frustrating for him? Well, I was playing blindfold, and he had sight of the board.

So, what do you think about how the US Women’s Championship went down and about time delay in general? What’s your favorite time control? As a player? Spectator? Don’t be shy. Add a comment below.